Red Shards
by Etaru
Summary: A mapper, Etaru, is caught between his own mind and the malicious intent of a murder guild. Tragedy has torn his already fragile perception of reality and he finds the journey back to sanity is a difficult one. Yet, despite a world that he feels conspires against him, he keeps pushing on. One step at a time.
1. Introduction

Hi, my name-or my pen name, anyway-is Etaru. So, first off, I realize that the name of the main character is the same. The main reason is that I'm really, really bad with keeping track of my own characters' names. After that, I just like the name. While the main character isn't really based on me, he and I share some things and I draw on some personal experience for him (but I generally try to take part of my personality and focus on that for every character to create a sense of realism). If you don't like that, I can't blame you at all because I generally don't like it when the main character is obviously based on the writer. That's mostly just when it's obvious that the main character is a paragon and nearly perfect.

Second, and this ties in neatly with the first thing, this story deals with mental health issues. They won't quite as dominant in the story during the first arc, but the main character is plagued by these issues so proceed with caution if you feel that this could be a trigger for you. For example, at the time of writing this, I've hit a bit of writer's block because I triggered myself and couldn't slip into the minds of my characters to create a coherent conversation and have had trouble sitting down and writing.

Tying that back into my first point, Etaru is supposed to be a highly imperfect person. Not quite an antihero, but close enough that I imagine he won't be everyone's favorite character.

I've never been good at creating realistic romantic drama. I was once told that I was good at writing tragedy and was terrible at writing romance, so I'd love to get pointers if / when I get to places like that. Even setting the stage for it is difficult for me.

As far as accuracy to the universe, one thing I realized early on was that throwing spikes couldn't be used as an offensive weapon. What I decided on is that it can't do damage but can still apply poisons like the paralysis effect seen early on. I can edit it out if people think it diverts too far from the lore of the universe. Second, the reason Etaru uses two katars is not because-at least from my perspective-he is dual wielding. My explanation is that "hand weapons" like brass knuckles and katars would be an offshoot skill of unarmed and it didn't seem to make sense to limit unarmed to one-handed and two-handed. Once again, this can probably be edited, but I'm not sure its necessary.

Really, the focus of this book is on the psychology of the characters and the philosophical undertones of the story. The Aincrad section is mostly designed to build up to when the books enter the ALO section.

I'm a novice writer (if I can call my myself that) so I'd greatly appreciate any advice and I appreciate any time you take to even view and read it.

I hope you find your time reading this to be enjoyable! :)


	2. Mapper -- Chapter 1

A pair of light footsteps softly echoed off the onyx walls of the 22nd floor's tower. A dull shine stood out amidst the darkness reflecting off of a set of dark brown eyes, lit up from the analyzing skill. Despite the darkness, the avatar in the lead was seeable only by a light outline of his thin figure wrapped in tight-yet slightly baggy-vestments. Behind him towered another avatar that stood head and shoulders above him wielding a plain looking longsword. In contrast to the cloth vestments of the player in the lead, the partner was fully clad in a bright metallic armor with a kite shield hanging from his back.

The dark figure suddenly stopped, his eyes narrowing and straining against the darkness. "There are two kobold ahead of us... approximately two-hundred meters. One has a mace and shield and the other has a katana."

He kneeled down and fiddled with his inventory. A belt of throwing spikes appeared crossing his chest, two large vial-shaped objects appeared on the front of his belt, and two Katars rested on either side of his belt.

He turned to the second man revealing his thin face in the in the erie almost white neon light, "Give me thirty seconds. I want to make sure I haven't missed anything before we engage." His eyes shone with excitement for the coming battle.

"Fine." The second man brought his sword up from its relaxed position and reached around and pulled his shield around. He shifted a bit stretching before admitting "alright. I'm ready. Be careful."

Be careful. The words hung in the air. Death here, was always the span of a hair away-especially for the lightly armored, dex based characters. One mistake...

No. The dark figure shook his head slightly and then raised his head back up, revealing a slight arrogant expression that was obviously forced and slightly in jest. "Aren't I always."

He received only a scowl, but before he allowed a response, he suddenly sidestepped into a shadow and disappeared from sight.

Just short of a minute later, a message appeared in the shield user's vision. He leaned his sword against his shield and tapped the message.

"There are a few trash mobs aside from the two kobold. We're a full eight levels above them, so I should be able to dispatch them quickly with an ambush. You ready to charge in? I'll wait for your move and then I'll hit the Kobolds from behind. ~Etaru"

He strained his neck out of habit. In the real world, his entire neck would have likely released a series of pops and cracks. Picking up his sword, he began walking towards the spot where the Kobolds were. "Save my energy-with his recklessness, I'll probably have to step in and save him from his own carelessness."

As soon as the Kobolds were in sight, they both turned their attention to him flashing a brief spark of red from their eyes signalling that he had picked up the aggro. He launched forward with a battle yell dragging his sword to the side and above his head, crouched into a charge behind his shield. His sword began glowing as he locked a sword skill on the mace user. Its defense could present a problem for Etaru's hand to hand combat style.

He hesitated for a moment when a half-dozen smaller kobolds and wolf-like monsters turned a corner and crouched to prepare to charge. Suddenly a bright flash of lights sparked across the hallway lighting it into a bright scene that resembled the morning sun. The light coalesced into beams that nearly simultaneously struck all the trash mobs. The impact wasn't hard, but the accuracy of them stunned them long enough for the paralysis poison that had coated the throwing spikes took control before they could recover. He smirked and with renewed vigor raised his further preparing for the blow that would at best kill the mace kobold in one hit or at worst, deal massive damage and stun it long enough for a final-blow switch from Etaru.

The Whirlwind Throw hadn't yet broken Etaru's stealth, "perfect, this is going to clean and easy." His blow struck cleanly on the mace Kobold and like he had thought, it drained its HP completely. Before his follow through was even complete, his sword was enveloped in an explosion of brightly colored polygons.

"Oh Shit!" He had lowered his shield just enough where the katana kobold had a clear shot at his head. He started raising it to react but he already knew it was going to be too late.

A blaze of flashes appeared behind the katana kobold-fury ambush: a high level stealth and hand to hand combo skill. The katana kobold gave a slight shriek of pain and fell down to the ground. Instead of continuing raising his shield, he transferred the momentum into a simple slash skill and landed cleanly in the small of the kobold's back knocking the last sliver of HP off it.

Another flash of polygons surrounded his sword. The two of them quickly finished off the paralyzed trash mobs.

"Yeaaaaaa" Etaru raised a hand in the elation of success and raised his hand in expectation of a high five. "Troy! Hell, that was fantastic. Your strength attribute is always fantastic to watch when you one-hit those mid-level mobs!"

Troy gave a slight sigh before resting his sword against his shield and gave Etaru a high five. In truth, this entire day of dungeon crawling had him frustrated, but now wasn't the time to discuss it so he held his tongue. He saw Etaru looking at his face and his eyes flashing to his arms and stance with a suspicious face. Troy knew immediately that Etaru knew that he wasn't saying something that was on his mind-like always. It seemed like nothing escaped him and the very fact that Etaru had even made such a deal out of it, as subtle as it was, was to convey that he knew without saying anything. He wants me to know that he knows, but also that he won't make a scene out of it.

As soon as it had appeared, Etaru's suspicion vanished replaced by a look of great excitement. "Guess what I found!? It'll make this entire day worth all the effort, far above and beyond all the loot we've picked up!"

Troy's eyes lit up. He knew immediately what Etaru was going to say. This was the ultimate goal of the mappers who dungeon crawled in the towers. "No way! This tower has only been explored for two days! You found the Boss room already?"br /br /A look of pride crossed his face and a one sided smile covered the left side of his face. "Yeah! Man, do you know how much of a premium we can sell this for? We'll be able to get you a new and better set of gear!"

Troy also knew instinctively what was coming next. "... and you want to check it out don't you."

Etaru's face fell into a look of irritated surprise. "Of course! Mapping data by itself would go for a premium, but details on the Boss will increase that price triple-fold. Besides! That's been the focus of all the skills I've been raising anyway. That's what I do."

Knowing there was no point in arguing with him in his state of mind, Troy sighed. "Fine. Where are we headed then."

"It's right up this hallway." Etaru walked so quickly in his excitement that Troy had to go into a light jog to keep up. He didn't need to worry about getting tired, because Etaru was going to do all the work and at most, he'd only need to use defensive skills.

They got to the door and Troy, sheathed his sword and pulled out his teleport crystal with his shield still in hand. Etaru still hadn't prepared his despite the amount of fiddling he had been doing in his inventory. "Get your teleport crystal ready."

"Right, mom. I almost forgot" Etaru let out a hearty laugh. He deftly lifted the flap on a small satchel on his belt that held a health crystal and a teleport crystal. "They always are. Not that we've ever actually needed them. Stop worrying so much. We've done this a dozen times. We're such a good team, there's no way we'll fail. Just stay by the door so that it doesn't close on me while I figure this guy out."

Troy opened his mouth to speak but before he could say anything, Etaru had opened the door and slipped into the shadows again. A dark and massive silhouette stood at the back of the room.

A single beam of light streaked through the room striking the beast and providing a slight knockback. Etaru's strength stat was low enough that it was likely the most powerful blow he could inflict in a single throw. A deafening roar sent a blast of air through the room and echoed down the long hallway behind them. Bright red eyes turned to the source of the strike. Troy followed the motion in surprise-he could see Etaru.

He let his own stealth drop! "Idiot!"

A massive spear streaked across the room letting off a horrendous screeching sound. Etaru nimbly rolled out of the way. At the same moment, about twenty smaller mobs appeared as though the floor let the sun shine up through it and fill out the shapes of a series of what appeared to be kobolds before the light dulled and their silhouettes became indistinguishable. Etaru dodged through the mass of mobs, occasionally releasing a streak of light that left one paralyzed on the floor. Within a few seconds, half the mobs were paralyzed on the floor, but Etaru had run out of places to dodge to. A giant flash of light appeared from what must have been the Boss's sword for a large power attack.

Troy leaned forward in horror. There was no way in hell with nowhere to dodge that he could block that and even if he did, he'd probably die from the bleedthrough damage anyway.

A small flash came from the center of the circle of mobs and an explosion of smoke filled the entire back section of the room. A echoing clang filled the room and sparks flickered inside the cloud of dust like lighting in a dark storm cloud. Suddenly Etaru came flipping out of the top of the smoke leaving a trail of smoke following him. He oriented himself to land on his feet but before he landed, he disappeared again.

Troy glanced around the room wondering where Etaru would appear next. Before he had even scanned from one side of the room to the other, he felt a grip on his arm that dropped Etaru's stealth. He was in a full sprint stance and Troy barely caught, "... what we need, let's get..."

Etaru took a minute at the base of the tower to catch his breath. They both knew that the feeling of being out of breath wasn't real, but the knowledge didn't seem to sate the feeling in the slightest.

"What was that back there? It obviously wasn't a sword skill..."

"You mean the cloud that appeared?" He grinned and pulled a vial off his belt-there were two before but he only held one now. "I discovered that there were some plants that when burned released a huge amount of smoke. You know, back when I was trying to learn cooking." He laughed at the absurdity of it. "I couldn't cook to save my life IRL let alone expecting to be able to pull off something so eerily complex in here. Anyway, I found that if I ground it up and put it in a bottle like this, I could use it to create a pseudo-smoke bomb!" Etaru was so proud of it, that his face practically gave off light. "I only figured it out the day before yesterday and the ingredients are kinda a pain to get, so I was only able to make two after all the mats I wasted trying to figure out how to get the result I wanted. Since we did so well today and it'll probably take the assault team a day or two to clear the boss, I'll go grind for more mats tomorrow."

Troy couldn't deny the usefulness of it-it had just saved his life by reducing the boss's accuracy enough for him to dodge out of the entire circle. Still, he couldn't shake his frustration which tarnished his excitement. "Figures the only thing you'd get out of trying to cook is smoke."

They both laughed over the truth of it and the tension finally started washing away.

"Alright, spit it out, Troy. I didn't say anything inside the tower because the last thing we would have needed in there is to get distracted. But, let's hear it now."

Troy leaned against the exterior wall of the tower and looked at the ceiling of the floor. Despite his frustration, he wasn't sure if he really wanted to discuss it. If he explained it wrong, it could come out really harsh and their group relied on the rapport and trust they shared to survive. Two player groups was a lot safer than soloing, but even so, the tension that could come could upset the balance just enough to put them both in danger in those situations.

Etaru turned. "I'll let you figure out how and what you're going to say on the way. Sun's going down and I need to meet with Natalie and get something to eat before I crash." His stomach growled. He scowled slightly thinking about having to meet with their information broker before eating. "I haven't eaten all day. C'mon. It's a long walk and I don't wanna spend the money on a crystal."

They walked in silence for a while. It was mostly clear fields and the impending sunset left a soft orange light across the coming autumn scene. Troy stopped and looked at the forest they were about to cross-the home-stretch of the trip. If he didn't say his piece now, there wouldn't be enough time in the trip through the forest and there was still plenty of time to talk and cross the forest before the sun completely went down.

"You're manic again."

Etaru bristled and stopped. He lowered his head in a bit of shame. He knew Troy in real life and he knew things about him that he would never admit to another soul. "At least we're out of earshot of anyone else. Yeah, so I'm in a manic stage. So what?"

"It's worse this time. In fact, every time it gets even worse. Your other side is dangerous. You're losing your cool rationality and even today, you took risks without a care in the world that you would have never taken."

"Yeah, what's your point. We cleared more than we have all week combined and we got some great loot and map data to go with that."

"You know full well what I'm getting at."

Etaru turned. It was obvious to Troy that Etaru was trying to look angry and he doubted anyone would have been able to see through it, but his eyes revealed a hint of despair that slightly shook his voice.

"Well, what do you want me to do? Lock myself in a house somewhere on a lower floor? Somewhere safer? That isn't going to make it go away! I can't just wish or will away the fact that I see a different person in the mirror all the time." Etaru turned away showing only his side to Troy, the angry front he held to his face starting to crack. A light shine gleamed reddish from the glare of the sunrise. "I have to keep moving. I can't stop even for a moment. I've always held on by finding something to distract myself from it using its weight to push back against it."

Troy hesitated. He knew that he didn't really have an answer. He had only brought it up because his own worries began to overtake him. He hadn't seen Etaru devolve into such violent swings since grade school. He opened his mouth and found words weakly leaking out of his mouth, "Well... the cooking system is pretty detailed in this game. Maybe they can replicate the sort of..."

"Hahahaha." A bitter laugh drowned out Troy's words. "What? You're suggesting I find a cook and ask for a prescription of Lithium? Hahahaha." He turned back to Troy and smiled. Again, to anyone else, it would have seemed genuine, but Troy saw the streaks of pain that hid underneath it. "Naw, I get it, dude. I'm trying, I really am. And you don't need to worry-I'll be fine I promise."

Troy wanted to believe that, but the problem was he could tell that Etaru also *wanted* to believe it but really didn't. He said it for Troy's benefit instead.

"C'mon, let's get through the forest before night. I think maybe a nicer dinner than usual is a long-needed luxury that will lighten the mood." Etaru quickly turned and headed into the forest and shortly afterward, Troy sighed then followed.

As they walked, Etaru couldn't help but get drawn back into the memories of life before SAO. He fought his mood swings through High School and most of College, dismissing them as adolescent feelings that would go away over time. Not only didn't they get better, they got worse-a lot worse. Finally, he broke down and had a massive manic episode at work that landed him in a long series of psychiatric and psychologist sessions. He had pushed so hard to fight the problems that they overwhelmed him to the point where they weighed on his back and the trip and fall made it impossible for him to get back on his feet. Some of the medication slowly was helping him "heal" or "get better" or whatever the psychiatrist decided to call it at the time. But they were rotating through medications so quickly, his mood might have improved, but he was never sure because his head constantly felt like it was on a slow spin.

He had turned to working a light job to pay for the most minimalistic bills after his family got tired of helping him, thinking it was a ruse to live a mooching life of luxury, but he dropped what little savings he had to distract himself in the virtual world-a place without the constant judgment and pity he was constantly given. Just remember it all was nearly as bad as being in the center of a depressive whirlwind. He considered himself lucky though. His propensity for lying kept him from being forcefully admitted to a psych ward but even then, he had only barely avoided it.

Maybe it would have been a better fate, but Etaru knew that he couldn't stop moving. It wasn't a matter of "can" or "can't" anymore. It was lay down and accept reality, or keep crawling. Besides. He stopped and glanced back at Troy who was fiddling with his inventory. Troy had been his only "true" friend. He had helped him get through the worst of those times by helping him pay bills and spending time just talking despite the great inconvenience it sometimes caused him. "I can't shield them forever, but I can't let them down. It's a losing battle, but I won't stop fighting as long as I have breath... I hope anyway." He shook his head slightly, the sharp pangs of anxiety satisfied slightly by his internal dialogue and turned to keep walking.

"SHIT"

Etaru jumped sharply back narrowly avoiding a throwing spike that streaked past his arm. He took great care to not even allow it to graze him. He couldn't think of a single npc that used throwing spike. That meant players. That meant bandits. At worst, it could mean PKers.

"Troy! Ambush!"

What the hell are bandits doing so close to the front lines! Now that he was paying attention, he saw orange and red cursors popping up in the woods right ahead of them. He cursed at his own carelessness for getting lost in his thoughts. There were at least ten of them, more if his skill wasn't high enough to see through their stealth. That would make this situation exponentially worse.

Troy flipped his shield out and drew his sword taking up a defensive posture in preparation for any more incoming projectiles. Being hit by a single paralysis dart could mean both their deaths.

A lone man wearing dark greys and browns stepped into the center of the path before them. "I hear you mapped the boss room ahead. Hand it over and we'll let you leave."

"How long have they been trailing us to know that we were mapping?" He realized that they must have waited at the edge of the forest for parties weak from battling all day. More importantly, Etaru studied the bandit's face and knew, that no matter what they did, these bandits would not let them go. His face was full of contempt and malicious intent. In addition, he had a smile that sent a shiver down Etaru's spine. "Something's wrong-they know who we are."

"As if it wasn't obvious enough, you were hired to kill us," Etaru blurted out. The words made Troy take a step back. Etaru and Troy had always been careful to avoid making enemies or even rivals. The risk that something like this would happen was too great to take the risk. "And you're cocky enough to believe that you've already won, so tell me if you're so sure you can kill us both, who the hell wants us dead and why!"

"You're as insightful as we were told you would be," the bandit said as his smile broadened. "But you're wrong about one thing. We weren't hired to kill you-not really. We just can't afford to let that intuition of yours interfer."

"Either you're being purposefully cryptic or you're too stupid to understand my question!"

The bandit glowered. An expression of pure irritation filled his face before it lifted into an expression of rage. He snapped his fingers. "And here I was hoping for this to be an easy day. Fine. Have it your way."

_crack_

Etaru turned just in time to see the color of a person whose cloak was breaking for an ambush attack. She had carelessly stepped on a branch which revealed her to Etaru. "Troy, behind you!"

Before he could move to intercept her blow on Troy, another figure emerged on Etaru's side dragging a scimitar down towards his head. Etaru rolled out of the way and grabbed his katars and unleashed a flurry of attacks on the man who was stunned for missing with a power attack. He turned to throw a paralysis dart on the assassin assaulting Troy.

It was too late. A twisted smile hovered right above the shoulder of Troy's kneeling avatar who had a long sword plunged through his gut. His health bar was falling fast. If he missed, he could hit and kill Troy.

"I won't miss." A sharp beam of white light screamed from his hand into the face of Troy's assailant who fell backwards as the paralysis took over. Etaru reached into his pouch, withdrew a crystal, grabbed Troy, and yelled "heal." Silence.

"HEAL DAMMIT!" The crystal still didn't break-Troys health bar dragged down until it disappeared.

A peaceful smile covered Troy's face that made Etaru's stomach curl. Troy laughed weakly, "Somehow, I always knew you'd outlast me. You're stronger than this." He turned his head to the last flickers of a sunset barely visible through the trees. He stretched out his hand towards it and said, "Don't give up. I'll see you on the other side."

Polygons. That's all that's left. Polygons. Like water poured onto a fire, the polygons flew apart and disappeared. Then there was nothing.

A deep laugh came from down the path. A vindictive deep voice bellowed, "I can't believed you survived that. Maybe you will make good sport after all."

Sport? These bastards think this is SPORT?!

Etaru dug his Katar into Troy's killer and ripped it to the side producing another explosion of light. He could make out the sound of sword skills powering up behind him-probably a mixture of thrown weapons and a charge. He took the vial off his belt and flipped it over his shoulder.

Etaru flipped backwards narrowly avoiding a small barrage of throwing spikes. In midair, he smoothly sheathed his right hand Katar and withdrew several throwing spikes. As soon as he landed, he launched him in a fury.

"Yeaaaaaa!" They all seemed to fly at once, leaving a trail of white light as they struck the spike throwers. But as soon as those streams of light could even be seen, the vial hit the ground and flooded the area with smoke.

He choked down another battle cry to avoid giving away his position in the smoke. His skill was high enough that he could see through it well enough to make out the rest of the bandits. One by one, Etaru used the chaos he had created and from outside the smoke, you could see flashes of light inside the smoke followed by stray shards of light escaping the cloud. Finally as the smoke cleared, Etaru was hunched over one of the spike throwers who immediately unraveled and blew apart in a blaze of light. Only the bandit in the center of the trail remained.

Etaru's health hadn't yet fallen into the orange which was probably the cause of the bandits sudden unease with the situation he had just found himself in.

The bandits drew his sword and unconsciously faltered backwards. "Hey, hey, hey... it wasn't anything personal! I just followed my instructions."

"That is the most idiotically cliche thing you could have said and by far the most pathetic choice of last words you could have used."

Etaru launched himself forward in a burst of speed that threw all the leaves around him in a whirlwind. In a normal fight without the advantage of ambush, he could probably have never beaten a sword and shield NPC. If he had thought about it though, he would've realized that he was moving faster than he ever had before. Between the intimidating display of mercilessly cutting down the rest of the bandits and his unrelenting assault, the bandit was on the defensive and quickly losing HP but Etaru's health was falling just as fast.

Sparks flew off the bandit's shield and down the length of his sword. A white gash cut down Etaru's leg. A Katar strike barely finding a hole in the bandit's defenses leaving a puncture in the bandit's chest as he dodged backwards and away from the blow. Another gash appeared along Etaru's arm, then another at the base of his neck. Finally Etaru barely countered the bandit's power attack, took advantage of the momentary stun, flipped over him, and dragged his katar from the bandit's head to lower back leaving nothing but a flurry of polygons.

He slowly stood to his feet and sheathed his katars. He surveyed the path that was remarkably empty save a small crystal that was covered in a layer of dirt from the fight. Etaru noticed his health had dipped into the red. He trudged over to the crystal and fell on his knees right in front of it and weakly picked it up.

"... heal." The crystal shattered and his health bar refilled instantly. "I... I'm sorry Troy." He looked down and stared at his open hands. His hands were shaking violently. He clenched them into fists and pounded them against the ground, his weight falling against them. Despite his wide open mouth, no words came out-not a sound. The last ray of red from the sunset fell across Etaru as though the sun itself empathized with his pain. The only sound to be heard was the tapping of his tears falling to the ground and then shattering into light. Then it was dark.


	3. Hunter p1 -- Chapter 2

"We don't need to check out the boss, Etaru. We can make well more than enough off the map data alone."

Etaru faced the boss door and smiled, "Yeah, but we can make triple the amount if we do! It won't take long, besides, I know what I'm doing."

He turned to look at Troy. He was translucent with a blade sticking through his gut. "Did we have enough time, Etaru?" Troy's avatar shattered and several bandits that resembled animated, rotting corpses rushed towards him. In a haze, he looked back across a grey landscape and a river of red slowly crept around his feet. Horrified, he looked at his hands-they were covered in blood. A hand grabbed his shoulder, "it was nothing personal."

"AAHhhhh!" Etaru screamed as he lurched out of bed, rolling across the floor. He was instinctively wiping his hands on his shirt. "Get it off! GET IT OFF!" Finally, his muscles loosened and he fell on his back with his arms laid across the floor. "I killed them..." He lifted up his hands and stared into his palms. "I killed them... I killed Troy..." His forearm fell onto his eyes to wipe away tears that had began to fall.

Etaru sat up resting his head on a knee. He closed his eyes and focused. "Breathe in... and out."

An entire year and he couldn't escape their faces. He should have just escaped, but in the heat of rage from watching his only friend die, he killed the bandits. He murdered every last one of them.

He checked the time. 0450. "Might as well start early today." He slapped on his equipment. Lately, he'd taken to wearing a cloth mask. His information broker said she thought it fit his ninja-like look but in truth, he felt too ashamed to show his face. He pulled out his katars and saw that their durability was getting dangerously low. "I best stop by Philo's to get that worked on."

"Hey, Red!" Etaru bristled at Philo's nickname for him. Only Natalie, his information broker, knew about what had happened and he gave her good enough information and business that she'd agreed not to sell it out-not that it was worth anything anyway. Philo was referring to the red detailing on the katars that Etaru regularly brought in, but he never wanted to correct him and he felt better if people didn't know his name anyway.

"God, Red. You should bring these in more often. I'm gonna have to charge you extra for this job and it's going to take twice as long if not more." Philo sighed. "It's a shame to see these beauties in such bad shape."

Etaru dropped a handful of Kol coins on the counter which took Philo by surprise. "That's way too much-even for this job."

"I need more throwing spikes. Think you could throw two dozen in while you're at it? That should still leave you with a thirty-percent tip if I did my math right."

"Yeah, sure." Despite the large stack of Kol sitting on his counter, Philo was enthralled by the Katars again.

"I've got other stuff to do before I start my work today. When should I come back to pick them up?"

Philo stroked his scruffy chin, "Eh, I'd guess maybe an hour? I'll need to get a few mats for this job so there's a chance it could take a little longer. I don't think this floor has good prices for what I need."

"Right. I'll be back in an hour and a half then." Etaru turned to leave the shop.

"I keep telling you this, but I could just send you a message when it's done. It's not like the friending process takes long."

He hesitated. "No, thanks Philo. I appreciate the offer though."

Etaru walked towards the nearest ingredients store. It was usually a place where people specialized cooking supplies you couldn't get from NPCs but even though it was expensive, it was more cost efficient than farming the mats for his smoke bombs himself. He checked the time and let out a sigh of relief. It had just opened and it was highly unlikely that any other customers would be there. "If I were on a nicer floor, I might have to deal with more crowds." He stopped and looked at the sky, "it's easiest for me to find jobs and avoid crowds here. The nice life wouldn't suit me anyway."

This shop was a quite a bit bigger than the blacksmith he had just come from. In fact it quite resembled a real life grocery store. He like this shop quite a bit because there were several different people who would tend it and make sales so he didn't really have to worry about meeting new people-they didn't as much smalltalk as the private owned shop keepers. The first time he had shown up in his ninja getup, they nearly messaged a local guild to bring security for fear of theft or extortion, but he came here enough that they recognized him and now he could attract as little attention as possible.

Today, the shop was manned by the most helpful of the employees. A while ago, he had seen through what Etaru was buying and guessed at its purpose. "Hey, bud. I got a bulk shipment in just for you. And, I threw in a little of this little herb. I tested a bit of it and it seems to make the smoke denser. It might be harder for you to see through, but in a tight spot, it might be really useful."

"Thanks. This will be great." Etaru dropped a stack of Kol onto the counter and then added the various ingredients to his inventory.

"Here, I went ahead and had some vials included in that shipment. It's not uncommon and we've had some requests to carry them anyway. Consider it a gift."

Etaru's hand hovered over the vials for a second before adding those to his inventory as well. Against his better judgment he decided to ask, "Hey, if you don't mind me asking, how do you know so much about how these herbs react like this? It's odd... I mean this is a cooking ingredient store."

The shopkeeper laughed. "I was wondering when you'd ask that. I figured you might get suspicious eventually. Truth is, I work closely with Natalie. I'm not too surprised she hasn't mentioned me-information brokers don't take kindly to having their sources poached."

Etaru gave him an unbelieving look. "You're an information broker? Huh... But that still doesn't really answer my question anyway."

He leaned back against the wall. "I'm not really an information broker as much as I listen and sell what I hear. I do something similar to what you do, but instead of mapping, I work with people. I just happened to study chemistry in the real world. I found that I could make a lot of extra Kol working in a place like this, just listening to people's conversations. You're right, who'd guess a shopkeeper like me works for an information broker!" He laughed "You needn't worry though. No one could really get anything out of the three or four words you usually say when you come in. No... I figured out that you worked for her when she mentioned a story of how you saved a party of players who had tried to come up to the front lines and failed. You used one of those smoke bombs to confuse the NPCs right? She didn't actually say it was you, but when I thought about the stuff you were buying, I just put two and two together."

"Huh. Yeah. I didn't see that coming. Chemistry?"

"Yeah, it's surprisingly useful here. With cooking, it's great for matching up the ingredients, but in your case, it helped me figure out what various reactions would happen with the various ingredients."

The bell to the store rang as another player came in. "Well, looks like you've got customers, and I have a lot to do before I get started today."

The shopkeeper stuck out his hand which seemed an odd thing to do. "Nice doing business with you Etaru. As usual."

No one could see it, but Etaru scowled that he knew his name and that he had said it in front of someone else. Figures that he knew his name though. "Yeah."

"I'm Kyrd. Until next time, stay safe out there."

"Right."

On his way to meet Natalie to see if she had any tasks in the field needing doing, he debated asking her about Kyrd. Etaru was mostly just slightly irritated that his privacy was, or felt, violated. Ultimately, he figured it would be better to leave it alone for now. It wasn't really a good idea for information brokers' sources to get to know each other. In the early stages of the game, it caused a lot of tensions and infighting. Those information brokers ended up losing most of the sources and falling behind in the intelligence game to the point where they shut down and looked for other professions. These days though, it was just dangerous. Bandits were often a target for information brokers due to their secrecy and the premium on information on them so if information sources got to know each other, it increased the chances of discovery which could lead to assassinations and retribution from them. For a non-combatant like Kyrd, that'd be a death sentence. Best to just keep it quiet.

On the way, he grabbed a loaf of bread and sat down at the normal meeting spot. It was close to the center of town but in a sort of alcove with benches. It was perfect because it was in the open but simultaneously, you didn't have to worry about watching your back since you were usually sitting against a wall.

As he was eating through his bread, a short girl wearing very high class clothing sat down about three meters away at a separate table. She rarely wore the same thing twice as a means of keeping her identity and these meetings secret. He rolled his eyes under his mask thinking that the flashiness of her outfit rather negated the purpose of secrecy since every guy in the game would stare at "the rare female player;" in this case, Etaru guessed that the extravagence of the outfit must be on purpose.

"Big day?" Etaru said while chewing on his bread.

Natalie pulled out a roundish water bottle, and took a sip before replying, "Yeah. You caught some attention with your last job."

"What? The one where I got that green guild out of the front lines? That wasn't a job, it was just coincidence. That shouldn't have drawn any attention to you."

"No, that wasn't coincidence." She took another sip and then proceeded. "Did you ever wonder what they were doing up there in the first place?"

"No. All I saw were some rookie players who thought they were better than they were. They could have just teleported themselves out and they didn't even think to do that because they weren't used to the panic of a front lines battle."

"You're right, they aren't used to the challenges of the front lines, but they aren't as green as you think they are. Their leader took a group of non-combatants and trained them up to mid to high level players within the course of three months. It's an impressive feat however you cut it."

She pulled out a small bread roll, took a bite, and washed it down with another sip. "In fact, they've done so well, they were recently approached by KB to join them."

"I suppose that is impressive. Still, aren't their levels a little low to join?"

"That's not the point, and frankly it's quite irrelevant and a bit of a waste of time to consider. That's not what we do."

Etaru rested his head against his fist slightly irked over the breadcrumbs of information that he was being fed. "Ok so, get to the important part then."

"A while ago, I was approached by KB to watch for potential talent-the assault teams have been looking for additional members quite a lot lately."

"... Hell... if that isn't suspicious. They rarely lose players on raids. It's not like they're at a shortage of talent."

"Yeah, I don't care. The money's good. Point is, when I started watching, I noticed that players that showed promise were dying off at an odd speed. It would be one thing if it were one or two, but it seemed that every time I found talent, they died. Someone else was watching for the same thing I was for different reasons. So I sent you to map that dungeon to intercept or maybe even catch whoever is behind it."

"Well, we definitely didn't get that."

"Actually we did. One member of that group just disappeared after that event. In fact I don't think he was even there when you saved them. One of the previous groups I had been watching had one member who was presumed dead that was spotted recently. It's becoming increasingly unnerving; it's as if these players are being prevented from reaching their potential. Purposefully. Surgically. What's worse, we've only recently become aware of the possibility. If they are connected-which it would seem too coincidental for them not to be-then we need to find a way to get these players to places where they can train and reach the front lines. In tandem, we'd need to find out who's behind it if it isn't random."

Etaru sighed. He looked at the time, and he was supposed to be back to Philo's shop in less than ten minutes. "Alright, so you need me to do what exactly?"

"There is a small group of players we only recently started watching. They're far more casual than what we usually look for and most of them are tradesmen, but two of them are quite capable fighters. Even in the short time we've been watching them, they've become far too bold. Their raid targets and farming areas are far more dangerous than they used to be. I want you to keep an eye on them."

Etaru sat back with a frown on his face, "don't you have other agents better suited for babysitting?"

"No. They can't know you're there. You're the best mapper I have because your stealth skills are so high, you can slip past anything. On top of this, we need the trap to spring so that you can intervene and catch whoever's responsible and at the least save the players."

"Fine. How much does this pay."

"One-hundred thousand Kol for the party alive or the information, four-hundred thousand for the party and the information."

Etaru started to turn to look at Natalie, and then quickly caught himself and returned to casually minding his own business. "You weren't kidding about the money being good."

"Good." She tapped a note that she left on the table. "I have to go. Keep me posted on your progress."

A few minutes after she left and teleported to a different level, Etaru subtly slipped the note into his inventory and headed for Philo's.

"Hey, Red! I'm really sorry, but the trip to get the mats took a lot longer than expected. It'll be another twenty minutes or so."

"No problem. Can I use your side-room while I wait?"

"Go for it," he said distractedly, completely absorbed in his work.

Reed called up the vials, herbs, and note out of his inventory, and began to make more of his smoke bombs while overviewing the note. The two suspected players were depicted in sketched pictures that were surprisingly realistic-Natalie must've put quite a few skill points into art. The rest were sketches of the target party he was to watch with names underneath them.

_-Eulec_  
><em>An up-and-coming sword and shield user. Plays forward consistently. Has a strong, charismatic personality but is not known for being a clever tactician.<em>

_-Kryoll_  
><em>A skilled pike user. Although they do not use ranks, Kryoll fills the position of second. His skill with a pike is easily matched by his tactical prowess. Eulec and Kryoll provide the party with a synergy that makes them extremely effective in combat when matched with the lower skill levels of the rest of the party.<em>

_-Ken'ichi_  
><em>Ken'ichi wields a mace. Although undoubtedly the weakest of the party, he seems to provide a critical role of opening holes in the defenses of shield mobs. He focuses more on mercantile skills.<em>

_-Shashitane_  
><em>Uses a single short-sword. Her dexterity skill makes her a competent fighter, but her skills would make calling her a "bard" much more accurate. She usually plays support, fighting only when necessary, and acting as the morale anchor for the party. Along with Kryoll, she acts as an advisor on occasion.<em>

_-Flig_  
><em>Flig wields an Odachi that he made himself. His primary skill is blacksmithing, but his high strength stats make him an excellent two-handed warrior. Should a party member of his be in danger, he will likely dive in to save them if he is able. In an overheard conversation, "Don't die because that means that Flig will have to rescue you. Again."<em>

_-Tarou_  
><em>Tarou is a secondary sword shield user in the party. While still green, he quite capable and reacts to unexpected situations with a cool head.<em>

_They have been based out of floor 42. It is possible to find them on 43 but highly unlikely._

Etaru gave out a low grumble. These dossiers were tedious, tiring, and dry. Natalie's romanticism for the "undercover agent" life made dealing with her unnecessarily complicated. He folded up the paper and returned it to his inventory; in the end though, he'd put up with it for as long as the Kol was good. He had made a solid twelve smoke bombs but only had enough of the extra herbs given to him by Kyrd to make two of the altered smoke bombs. He left one on his belt and put two regulars on its right. After collecting the rest of the spare ingredients, he moved back into the lobby.

"Red! Check this out!" Philo's face was flushed with excitement. In his hands, he held up Etaru's katars-odd, they had a slight gleam to them now. "I did such a good job, I didn't just repair them! They're practically a brand new set that are twice as good as when you brought them to me!"

Etaru lifted them up, "Are they supposed to be lighter-like, is it intentional?"

"You tell me, Mr. Hand-to-Hand Combat. I assumed lighter meant you could move faster-besides, it's not as though you could really block with them in the first place."

Etaru tapped on one to bring up the item menu. Sure enough, the stats on the blades matched with his level now. It was relieving as he was dreading having to part with them. "Arrowhead Striker? They have names now?"

"I know. Aren't I amazing!?" Philo grinned with excitement. It looked like it was taking every ounce of self-control he had to keep from dancing around the room.

"Well, know I know why you're so proud of your work. Do I owe you extra for this?"

"If I were to charge you extra, it'd only be ten or twenty kol. Don't worry about it. You come in often enough where I'm not worried about it. Nothing but the best for my best customer!"

Etaru silently sighed over Philo's excitable nature. He was a terrific blacksmith but he could be so incredibly insufferable sometimes.

"Oh! And don't forget your throwing spikes. I must be on a roll today, because I nearly made double the number of spikes with the same mats! And as always! They're Philo quality. That means the best quality."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." Despite his irritation, Etaru was genuinely impressed today. "I really appreciate it. I won't see you for a few days, so take care, hear me?"

"Right."

Etaru strapped the first belt of throwing spikes over his shoulder and fastened it by his waist under the opposite shoulder and headed for the town teleporter. "So I'm dealing with a conspiracy, eh? Clever criminals? In SAO? Whatever. It's just another job."


	4. Hunter p2 -- Chapter 3

Etaru stepped off the portal onto the 42nd floor. A cold breeze cut through his clothes; winter still hadn't quite passed. He checked the time-0822-and scowled. What time the party begins raiding would have been helpful information to have. It would probably have been more helpful than the hand-drawn portraits that he was given. Still, it was just early enough that the plaza was mostly empty. Floors this far below the front lines were rarely busy.

He looked around, "I need a high place: somewhere that overlooks the city." Discontented by the lack of any prominent towers, he pulled up his map. "If I assume that they continue their pattern of dangerous hunting, they'll probably head for the area around the floor tower." He dragged his hand over the map following the main path that led that direction. "It's wooded and filled with enough cliff faces that I'll head there first. If I don't see them in twenty minutes, I'll sweep the surrounding area." He tapped a point on his map. "I should be able to get a decent view of the west exit and most of the city from here with decent cover." He turned and quickly headed that way making a point to stick to back alleys and side roads.

He only ran across three or four people and only one of them had even looked his direction so he felt pretty confident he had drawn no suspicion. Stealth would interfere with his tracking and searching abilities-even if only slightly-so he just hid on the precipice of the cliff face that overlooked the city and it's west entrance.

"Patience..." he muttered.

Etaru was about to move position to get a wider view of the surrounding area to see if they had passed through another exit when a small party of six players passed through the gate.

"Two sword and shield users. A pike. An odachi. A mace. ... I think that's a short sword, but I can't make it out. ... Is that a guitar?" Etaru strained to see the distant players as best he could. He couldn't make out their faces and only recognized the weapons based off experience, but that strange shaped box-like item that one of the players was holding couldn't have been a weapon. The way the light reflected off it's sharp curved body and the length of straight wood that led to a ball-like protrusion made it look similar to a guitar. "I guess that would make sense if this is that group, and the rest certainly fit the profile."

Etaru rolled out down the cliff a bit until he was out of view and then ran to the next overlook. He'd have a much better vantage point there and stealthing wouldn't cut into his ability to analyze them. Still, he'd have to be careful moving from that position afterwards. All the dead underbrush would make it difficult to move silently.

After waiting for a few minutes, the party he was tracking turned around a bend in the path and were close enough he could start making out faces. Eulec and Kryoll were in the front walking rather casually and making a loud ruckus. "Laughing? Boasting, maybe?" Etaru listened in as hard as he could and caught a few words and phrases: "did you see?!" "And then you" "Assault team" "soon." "So, infighting seems a less likely possibility" Etaru speculated. Behind Kryoll and Eulec, Ken'ichi and Tarou seemed to be enjoying the conversation and occasionally turning to each other and speaking in a tone that was obviously a cheering volume but was indiscernible. Shashitane and Flig were trailing a few meters behind the main group. Flig wore a peaceful expression on his face and held his odachi lightly with two hands while resting it over his shoulder. Etaru was always taken slightly off-guard by the sheer size of the odachi. Even held by so massive a man, it seemed too large to be practical. Shashitane wore an almost elated face as she moved-no, danced-along the trail. They were close enough now that Etaru could just barely make out the tune over the other party members.

"I know I've heard that tune somewhere..." Suddenly, he had a flashback to a night he had stayed in Taft on floor eleven. At the time, it was a densely populated inn that felt more like a pub. "Is she even old enough to drink?..." Etaru buried his head in the dirt in front of him. "Idiot. This isn't the real world." As he looked back up, the party was just now passing his position. He waited until his position was outside their peripheral vision and then he pulled up the map. There was a choke point in the path about two kilometers ahead where the path was practically cut out of a large hill. "I'd bet anything, that's where they'll get ambushed if they are." He rolled down the cliff again and then carefully made his way to the choke point as quickly as he could.

It was slow going. It was slower than he would have liked, rather. He routinely peeked over the cliff faces to check the progress of the party, but because he was trying to be quiet, he wasn't going much faster than the party and his occasional diversions back to the cliff face, used the rest of the extra speed he had to where he was only barely keeping up. He found a small side path that was mostly cleared of brush and decided to make a run for the suspected ambush point. He came to a small hill right before the entrance point and began surveying the area for any ambush party. Undoubtedly, there would be people on the other side to box them in, but there should be people here too.

"Odd. I can't find anyone. Even in a group, there should be a few who I could identify against their hiding. Maybe I was wrong." He looked back down the path to the slowly oncoming party. Out of habit, he pulled out a vial of poison and began dipping his throwing spikes in it. He realized immediately that he only had enough poison for three spikes. "Of course. I knew I'd forget something." He sighed and put the empty vial back in his inventory. If he'd been alone, he'd have just toss it and let it's durability wear out, but even the flash from something so small could give him away. He watched the party enter the enclosed area of the path and then once again scanned for activity. Still nothing.

Etaru carefully climbed down the cliff face onto the area right off the main path. As long as he stayed in the underbrush, he should be able to stay hidden. It was too bright to just follow. He looked up at the sun, "The sun's still far east. Once I get into the enclosed path, there should be enough darkness inside to stay hidden."

The dark path wedged between cliffs ran about a half a kilometer. At the slow pace the party was taking, Etaru felt like this was taking forever and more and more he felt that this was a waste of time barely justified by the pay.

A few meters before they returned to the open path, a man clad in greys and blacks with a white and black detailed mask jumped into the center of the path.

Etaru stopped. All he could see was that bandit that jumped into his path in the forest. He quickly turned to see if they were being surrounded but there was no one behind him. "A frontal assault? That's poor tactics... unless..." He looked up to see another 12 men who wore almost identical outfits with various intimidating masks leaning over the edges of the cliff face on both sides. "Oh damn, I can't believe I missed that." Eulec seemed to be engaging the bandit in talks and was perhaps attempting to negotiate.

Suddenly Kryoll readied his pike and yelled, "No, Eulec! No way in hell we're going to give this scum a thing!"

The bandit raised his hand and then straightened his hand flat and dragged it back down to his side. The canyon was filled with an echoing symphony of battle-cries as the bandits on the ledge leapt down. They all took minor falling damage, but the element of surprise gave them the advantage.

Etaru was still nearly fifty meters behind the party and he took to a full sprint to aid them.

A flurry of panicked combat broke out. The party was surrounded on all sides from the ambush. To Etaru's surprise though, they regrouped surprisingly quickly. Kryoll barked out orders and inspired the group but in reality, the group simply acted in near perfect unison-something almost unseen in even the most seasoned parties.

"YEEAAHRRR!"

Shashitane dropped to an acrobatic crouch and drew her shortsword just as she barely ducked out of the way of a massive blade. Flig had spun in a circle and built up momentum behind his odachi and it was his blade that nearly grazed Shishitane's back destroying the musical instrument that Shishitane had been playing a moment eariler-yet it was no accidental or careless incident of near-friendly-fire. The two acted in a manner that reminded Etaru of a synchronized dance; their movements felt almost choreographed. Flig's odachi cut cleanly through one of the assailants and impacted against the shield of another but the sheer force of the strike threw the assailant against the cliff face. The moment that Shashitane was clear of Flig's blade, she flipped sideways, kicking her legs in a circle to propel her to her feet. Mid-action, she activated an uppercut sword skill that bypassed the guard of the third assailant they faced. Her short sword impacted at the gut level and cut up to the collarbone leaving a long, deep streak of white.

Further forward, Ken'ichi's mace slammed into the shield of another bandit. "Switch!" Tarou slid past effortlessly with a precise thrust. A look of relief crossed his face when he wasn't immediately countered but that relief was immediately wiped away when he noticed an attack coming from his flank. Tarou's blade was still lodged in the first bandit and he wouldn't have time to dislodge it to defend himself. Ken'ichi barely parried the incoming axe with his mace but was knocked down from the force losing a quarter of his health in the attempt. Tarou's blade was freed by an explosion of light and he immediately threw all his weight into a swing that took advantage of the opening Ken'ichi had made. Taken slightly off balance by the desperate attack he had made, Tarou was blindsided and knocked to the ground by a club attack from behind where Ken'ichi would have been watching had he been on his feet.

Eulec and Kryoll stood back to back fighting off the brunt of the enemies. Where Kryoll was constantly yelling out motivation or battle cries, Eulec was coolly fighting. It was an interesting contrast that reflected what Etaru had read in the dossier. Eulec may have brought the group together, but Kryoll directed it and held it together. Charisma and cunning. Kryoll's pike was difficult to see; when enemies came close, the shape of the pike coalesced into a spinning circle that forged an impressive defense like Etaru hadn't seen of a pike user and when they were more than a meter away, his pike made flashing thrusts and violent slashes. Eulec had a harder time of it lacking the sheer reach that Kryoll possessed. He wasn't able to dodge much with Kryoll at his back, but he made full use of his shield as well as his sword, bashing some enemies back while knocking away the sword of another.

Despite the impressive performance of the party that far exceeded Etaru's expectations of a party so green especially given the situation which would send most people into a panic, they were still outnumbered. Only four enemies had been brought down and Ken'ichi and Tarou were in dire straits. If they fell, the group would crumble under the pressure of division and loss.

Etaru prepared a set of throwing spikes that glowed in preparation for a throw, but just before he released his throw, Etaru saw the lead bandit make eye contact with Eulec who nodded in return. Eulec hopped a few feet, brought his sword around and cut Kryoll in half. As if time stopped, the rest of the party watched with horror as Kryoll's face contorted into an agonized look of shock. The sudden betrayal and loss of a friend drained the color from them and if their fight and spirit had a color, it would have drained to their feet as well. Etaru's throwing blades cut through the frozen scene like bird-shot from a shotgun knocking three enemies that had surrounded Ken'ichi and Tarou off their feet. Before they had even hit their marks, Etaru drew another blade and hit the bandit who had been knocked into the wall by Flig's assault.

The sound of death echoed in the canyon. No matter how many times he heard it, it always sent chills down his spine and threw him back into his dreams of watching Troy die. As the sound faded, Etaru cut through and yelled, "Don't just stand there! Get the hell out of here!" Etaru flew past them towards the the remaining four bandits while Flig and Shashitane helped Ken'ichi and Tarou up. They were all in the red from the fight but were able to quickly retreat out of the canyon.

He couldn't hold it back any longer. The sounds of battle, the smell of sparks coming from clashing steel were enough in the past to throw him into a frenzy of memory, but Etaru's eye's started clouding over with red and murderous intent. Unsure of when he had even struck a blow to either, two more enemies burst into shards. That should have left two enemies, but Eulec was missing. Further angered by having lost his target, he dropped to the ground and dragged his left katar across his enemy's shins and then launched himself up pulling his right katar up the entirety of the last enemy's avatar.

Etaru panted in exhaustion. Between running all day and this intense fight, he had already been more active than his job usually required of him in a day. He turned to see the empty canyon with no sign of the rest of that party.

*SNAP*

Etaru jumped and turned back to the exit of the canyon landing in a crouch to see Eulec, who had changed into a black robe. The part of the sleeve that covered his forearm had white detailing that contrasted the rest of his black outfit: a Laughing Coffin insignia. The fact that a murder guild was involved here, wasn't surprising, but the fact that the largest and most infamous of them was here gave credence to Natalie's story. Etaru's eyes narrowed.

"Ha!" Eulec laughed, his face filled with a cruel mirth. "And here I was thinking I wasted all my time with these people. I might actually look back and enjoy it. Of course that depends on how good of a fight you put up before you die." He began to grin but before it came to fruition, a mask covered his face

"That mask..." Etaru suddenly felt the weight of all his exhaustion fall onto his shoulders. That bandit wore the same mask as the man who killed Troy. Etaru's vision blurred and turned the world into shades of red. Although he was fully aware that it was unlikely for him to be able to beat a sword and shield player, there wasn't a rational thought left in his head. It wasn't even anger against Eulec; for all intents and purposes, Eulec was gone. Etaru just wanted the man wearing that mask dead.


	5. Silvered Amulet -- Chapter 4

Etaru's katars, Arrowhead Strikers, were a barely visible blur of red and silver. Sparks filled the air lighting up the canyon more than the morning sun. So far, he had failed to land a single hit and was merely hammering against Eulec's shield but he did, at the least, have him on the defensive. The adrenaline that must have been pumped into his system had clouded his eyes and judgment-he kept missing openings and his attacks were imprecise and sloppy. Very quickly, Eulec realized this. In normal circumstances with the opportunity for ambush stripped away, Eulec and Etaru would have been a near equal match. Eulec was a lower level character, but Etaru historically had difficulty dealing with shields. Now however, Etaru's blind rage actually put him at a disadvantage.

Eulec used his shield to bash into Etaru's barrage and then hopped backwards and powered up a strong attack. Etaru quickly recovered but when he did, he barely had enough time to get one katar in place to block the attack and he was too close to dodge or effectively parry. The force of the blow knocked the katar out of Etaru's hand and it flew down the canyon and rested on the path twenty meters behind him.

Having staggered Etaru again, Eulec began a combo attack to push his advantage. Etaru danced around the attacks messily, taking several hits in the process. He barely deflected a few fatal blows with his right katar and his left bracer. Finally a gap in Eulec's attacks opened up and Etaru thrust his right katar in to break his charge.

It was a feint. As soon as Etaru took the bait, Eulec bashed his shield into Etaru's head then spun to deliver a powerful lateral strike. Etaru brought up his left bracer up and barely deflected the brunt of the attack. Off-balance, Etaru backpedaled and then slipped on the katar that had been knocked out of his hand-he hadn't realized just how far back Eulec had pushed him. As soon as he hit the ground, the durability on his helmet and bracer dropped to zero, evaporated, and his health dipped into the orange.

A feeling of panic filled him and his vision cleared up enough to see Eulec making a charge to finish him off. Etaru had just enough time to slip out one of his poisoned throwing darts and throw it, hitting Eulec square in the chest. Whether from the onsetting paralysis or the interruption of his action, Eulec hesitated giving Etaru time to throw himself back up and knock Eulec on his back. Face to face with the mask that was nearly identical to Troy's killer, Etaru's vision clouded back up in a blind fury.

He raised his katar in preparation for the killing blow and screamed as he brought his hand back down.

The canyon filled with a rush of wind and a flash of light knocked Etaru back down towards the edge of the canyon. As he finally came to a stop, his cloak's durability dropped to zero and his health settled in the red. Still barely able to see, he looked to see a group of players clad in white and red and what looked like one of the party members he had been following. Etaru's ears were ringing and he couldn't make out anything that was being said, but they picked up the red player and one of them began walking to him.

Panic set in again. Etaru tried to pick himself up again, he wasn't going to go out without a fight. It suddenly occurred to him that his head shouldn't hurt as much as it was-even attacks that had connected with his head before had never hurt this much. Finally, his vision went black and he fell back to the ground.

* * *

><p>Etaru's eyes slowly opened, the room around him blurred. He rubbed his eyes out of habit and yawned. Looking around, he realized he was in his apartment. "How..." He sat up and rested his forehead in his palm. For some reason, his head was still throbbing a little. He knew that this shouldn't happen. No in-game injury could cause that sort of lasting discomfort. He checked the time and realized he was already late for his daily meeting with Natalie. "Maybe I dreamt it?"<p>

Etaru systematically went to equip his gear and realized that he was still wearing everything. He flipped through his inventory and realized that his gear was all in bad shape and he was missing his cloak, a bracer, his helmet, and his katars.

"No, I definitely wasn't dreaming." Etaru growled. "Great, I'm gonna have to spend all day replacing my missing gear and getting the rest repaired."

He flipped through his inventory and equipped a simple civilian outfit and then ran out the door to get to his meeting with Natalie.

He finally arrived at the meeting place but there was no one there. "I'm only ten minutes late. I'll send her a short message and wait for a bit."

Etaru absentmindedly tapped out a message but before he even finished it, Natalie sat down across from him.

"Gyah!"

Natalie was taken aback by Etaru's outburst and a mixed look of confusion and surprise filled her face.

"Sorry... I'm a bit off balance today... and since when do you sit at the same table for these meetings?"

"I don't. I don't have any jobs for you today. I'm just here to pay you. Four-hundred thousand in full." She quickly flicked through her menu and a trade window popped onto Etaru's screen.

"Thanks. I'm missing a few details on yesterday though, could you fill me in?"

Natalie gave him another confused look. "Yesterday?"

"... Yeah. The job you're paying me for?" Etaru was starting to get frustrated. He wasn't sure if this was one of Natalie's games or if she was being honest. Either way, she was always cryptic and Etaru wasn't in the mood for it.

Natalie sighed and stood up. "I don't have time. That party you saved? They're in the local tavern waiting to thank you or something sentimental like that. Ask them." She began walking away and then stopped for a moment. "And that was two days ago. Not yesterday."

Etaru rubbed his temples-another residual habit from the real world that had no real effect here. His headache was gradually decreasing, but it was still very irritating. "The local pub, huh?" Etaru debated between getting his gear repaired first or finding that guild he saved first. With the money he was paid today, he could probably take the better part of a month off if he really wanted to so he figured it wouldn't hurt to get answers first. At the very least, he could take it easy for a day.

* * *

><p>Etaru pushed against the heavy wooden door that led into the local pub that doubled as an inn. He had only been here once before even though he had lived practically next door for the better part of a year. As he stepped in, he noticed that it was surprisingly crowded which was in stark contrast to the rest of the city itself that was almost always sparsely populated. Looking to his left he saw a small group crowded around a girl who was playing what looked like a guitar. A lively, upbeat tune unnaturally permeated the room as though the guitar was plugged into an amp; of course, such devices didn't exist in SAO.<p>

It had been quite a while since Etaru had listened to music. In the real world, music had acted as a sort of anchor in the same way his work did now. Forgetting the reason he even came to the pub in the first place, Etaru sat in empty booth near the corner and stared out the window letting the strangely peaceful tune wash through him. His eyes were drawn to the floor's ceiling that had an almost sky-like appearance to it. His memories were drawn to the times when the game had stopped being a "game" and was simply a time where he was spending time with his friends. His ruminations turned bitter as he found himself wishing that he had more memories like those. Shaking his head to suppress the memories and feelings, he looked around again.

Standing head and shoulders above the crowd, Flig was staring directly at Etaru. It took Etaru somewhat off guard, breaking his composure. He waved over to Flig and motioned to a seat and then waved at an NPC waitress. Flig's stature was surprising to say the least. Although he was just short of two meters tall, he was very thin. If Etaru had to guess, he would have thought that Flig weighed around ninety kilograms. His short spiked hair fell forward onto his forehead where a light frosting contrasted his dark eyes. His face was sharply angular and reminded Etaru of the sort of face one would expect from an officer of the law or from the military. Flig slipped his odachi off his back and leaned it against the booth as he sat down. His armor was quite plain but heavy making it obvious that he valued practicality over aesthetics.

"You're a member of the guild that was ambushed by bandits on floor fourty-two right? Flig?"

"Yeah... I'm sorry, do I know you?"

Etaru was again taken off-guard by the deep booming voice Flig had and it took him a moment to remember that he was dressed in civilian clothes and didn't have a single piece of armor on that he did that day.

"Wait... you're that merc who saved our hides, right?!"

"Uh... well. Yeah, I guess." Etaru bowed slightly "I'm a mapper." Being a mapper was commonly thought to be a solo occupation and while there were many jobs that mappers *could* do solo, those who knew better understood that mappers worked best in small parties. Unfortunately, mappers had a poor reputation as being mercenaries. Once, he had introduced himself as a mapper and the player immediately assumed he was a cold blooded killer which took a great deal of explaining that bounty hunting and mapping were, in fact, not the same thing at all. This time Etaru decided it was pointless to hide his occupation from these people. If they knew where he lived, it was possible they knew already anyway.

Flig bowed in return. "Flig. Member of the Silvered Amulet. Etaru? I get that right?"

Etaru tapped the table. Seems like his name is being given out like candy these days. "Yeah, that's me. I would have dressed in a more recognizable outfit, but I had planned to stop by the local blacksmith before I found out that your party was here."

An NPC waitress came to the table and Etaru tapped a few buttons on a virtual menu, "You want anything? On me."

Flig batted Etaru's hand away from the menu. "If anything, we should be buying you drinks today!" Flig swiped the menu over to him and furiously tapped a long list of buttons. The NPC waitress walked away at the conclusion of the transaction to which Flig waved over Ken'ichi and Tarou.

Ken'ichi was a rounded individual who was slightly taller than Etaru. Unlike Flig, he was wearing casual street clothing. His shirt had a silver amulet embroidered at the neckline that contrasted the dark gray of the shirt itself. Etaru guessed that he was a mid-level tailor as well as a merchant. He wore his hair in a small knot that was just long enough to be pulled back. Etaru slid to the edge of the booth to give him space.

Immediately afterwards, Tarou approached the table. He had the look of a seasoned athlete to him. Probably in his early twenties, Tarou exuded an aire of confidence and importance. He was still in his armor like Flig, but Tarou's armor was decorated and polished.

Etaru gave another slight bow to Tarou and Ken'ichi. "I'm Etaru. A mapper."

Before Tarou even sat down, he lunged across the table and grabbed Etaru's right hand with both of his hands shaking it furiously while he also bowed, his head almost touching the table.

Ken'ichi laughed. "Don't mind Tarou. He hasn't shut-up over how he thought he was going to die that day. I'll be surprised if he can spit out four coherent words!"

Tarou's eyes shot daggers at Ken'ichi which prompted him to laugh harder.

"Sir, you have my sincerest thanks for your timely rescue yesterday and my deepest condolences for the trouble it caused you." Tarou finished and then sat down next to Flig.

"Woah, he speaks." Tarou was laughing so hard that his face had turned red.

Etaru turned slightly to the window unsure what he should say. He felt saying 'you're welcome' would gloss over the fact that he had been paid a very substantial amount of money to rescue them but he also didn't want to tell them that he had been paid. Either seemed like something that would break the mood.

Ken'ichi leaned against the table and spoke as though he had read Etaru's mind, "Hey, we know that it wasn't coincidence that brought you to our rescue. We had a long conversation with your friend Natalie."

Etaru breathed a sigh of relief which prompted Tarou to light up. Etaru was slightly surprised. It wasn't uncommon for people to be good at reading emotions but it was uncommon for people to care enough to try. It's probably a factor in what makes him an exception merchant.

Etaru leaned back into the corner of the booth that sat against the wall, "I was rather hoping you could fill in some of the gaps in my memory as to what happened yester-the day before yesterday-after I blacked out."

Tarou folded his hands on the table and began in his unusually formal tone, "Yes, given my limited understanding of the medical field, I believe that your wound could not have been the result of an in-game injury. I find it likely that it was the result of dangerously high blood pressure."

Flig turned to Tarou, "I don't think that's what he meant."

Tarou frowned, "Perhaps, but isn't it a likely mystery he holds in his mind's eye? Bah. I shall relay the events chronologically."

The NPC waitress reappeared at the table and began setting drinks and food down. Etaru stared at the large gathering of expensive food. He never bought food of this quality for himself and was unaware that this floor even sold high quality food. Flig leaned over and slid the shortest of the glasses over to Etaru along with a large mug and a plate with some sort of steak-like food. He sniffed the short glass curiously and realized it was a replication of whiskey.

Flig gave off a smile, "Natalie said it was your favorite."

Etaru had never bothered trying it in SAO and had only mentioned the fact to Natalie in passing. He felt it was too expensive for something that was unlikely to be anything like the real thing. He took a sip and the mellow flavor slid down his throat creating a warming sensation and caused the slightest vision impairment. "Wow. That's... incredible! Thank you, Flig."

Flig bowed and began cutting into his food.

Tarou had been sitting, opening and closing his mouth as though trying to interject. Until finally he sat and waited for Flig and Etaru to stop speaking. "Immediately after you heroically jumped into the fray and turned the tide of the battle, we were able to make a tactical retreat to lick our wounds and return prepared for battle."

"As I recall," Ken'ichi interrupted, "You could barely stay on your feet!" He laughed again before filling his mouth with what looked like beer.

Tarou's eyes rolled before continuing, "Despite my intentions, yes, my feet did not agree with them. That does not, however, detract from the honor of the intentions. The blame falls on the feet."

Tarou choked on his drink and began laughing anew.

Tarou's eyes fell to the bard who was now playing a softer tune that had an almost sad quality to it. "Shashitane may seem simple, but with her quick, collected wit and her peerless dexterity, he ran-no, she flew-down the path and disappeared almost instantly. The shock of her quick departure left us speechless, but within a minute, she returned with a raid party from the KoB. Imagine that! A KoB raid party on the forty-second floor!"

Flig cut in, "Yeah, that apparently wasn't coincidence either. In any case, Shashitane saved your life there. The lead member of that raid party thought you were one of the bandits and moved faster than I've ever seen anyone move and threw you across the canyon. Another member began charging towards you powering up another sword skill when Shashitane dashed in front of him and screamed at him."

They all laughed.

"Now that it's over," Flig continued, "it's almost funny that you survived against all the bandits only to have your reinforcements nearly finish you off."

"Ah... I remember seeing their red and white uniforms but I didn't put that together at the time. A KoB raid party on the forty-second floor... how odd. Yeah, I couldn't hear either so I don't remember Shashitane intervening."

"You see? His words support my theory." Tarou puffed up with pride. "As I said, it seems most likely that it was high blood-"

Ken'ichi reached across the table and punched Tarou in the chest.

"How extremely uncivilized of you!"

They stared at each other before bursting into laughter.

A clatter of wood hitting the marble floor drew Etaru's attention to the end of the booth where Shashitane had moved a chair to sit with the rest of the Silvered Amulet members. "You guys didn't forget to order something for me did you? Again?"

"Naw, of course not." Flig slid a plate over to her. Ken'ichi followed by reaching into the center of the table, grabbing the last giant mug and setting it down next to her plate.

"This, dearest Shashitane," Tarou began, "is our most benevolent hero, extraordinaire."

Etaru bowed again, "Etaru. Mapper. I think 'hero, extraordinaire' is taking it a bit far though. I'm just a merc."

Ken'ichi punched Etaru's shoulder, "Hey, we've been over that. Kol or no, you saved our lives. I'd rather be saved by a merc than be dead by a bandit."

Shashitane bowed in return, "Shashitane. Silvered Amulet. As we understand, you would have saved us even if you hadn't been paid, so I think it's a moot point."

Etaru quickly sidestepped the comment, which Ken'ichi visibly noticed but said nothing, "speaking of which, you seem to have a lot of information about me for us having never met before."

"We could have said the same of you, in fact we're about as much in the dark as to why any merc would be hired for that job in the first place as you are about taking it." Flig was speaking while chewing which prompted Tarou to flinch and scoot to the edge of the booth to avoid the specks of meat that followed Flig's words.

Ken'ichi began to set his feet on the table, horrifying Tarou, but they were slapped back down by Shashitane whose food would have been right underneath his boots. "The KoB transported Eulec to a prison-which one we don't know-and then Flig carried you back with us to their base in Granzum. We never even went in. As soon as we teleported to the fifty-fifth floor, Natalie was exiting from the castle and we came here."

"She gives the shady reputation of information brokers real substance," Shashitane interjected. "She broke into your apartment so that we could take you there. And knew more about you than I imagine your best friend would know."

Etaru flinched unintentionally and Ken'ichi reached over and gave Shashitane a light hit on the shoulder to get her attention. She had been speaking with her eyes closed and when she opened her eyes and made eye contact with Ken'ichi, she realized the insensitivity of what she had said. She turned red before opening her mouth again. "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking."

"She really did tell you a lot... don't worry about it." Etaru quickly shoved some more food in his mouth and washed it down with the last of the virtual whiskey.

Tarou broke the awkward silence, "Natalie does indeed live up to the reputation of information brokers. She would have charged us an exceedingly large sum of Kol for the information she gave us. Fortuitously, Ken'ichi is a master negotiator and merchant and haggled her down to less than half her asking price."

"She didn't give you any clue as to why the KoB was involved or why I was hired to tail you?"

The Silvered Amulet members all looked to each other and then Flig matter of factly said, "No."

Etaru opened his mouth to ask about Eulec but decided it would be equally insensitive to ask if not more because of the freshness of the wound.

"I know what you're thinking." Shashitane looked down at her food. "I haven't been able to get it out of my head."

Ken'ichi nodded, "Me either."

Flig and Tarou seemed be slightly lost by this but as soon as Shashitane continued, their faces darkened. "I don't know how we didn't know that Eulec was working with-or for, we don't know that either-LC. It seemed that he and Kryoll were the best of the friends. How he could just turn... and coldly..." She covered her mouth with her hands and Flig and Tarou bowed their heads in silence.

Ken'ichi nudged Etaru and tapped on his ring finger and looked at Shashitane. She was wearing a ring. Upon seeing Etaru's recognition, Tarou began speaking. "Kryoll and Shashitane were... well... Kryoll was a dear friend to us all. I guess we might have not seen the signs because the truth was too horrible to consider or... I think it's more likely that his change of employment was recent."

Shashitane got up and walked over to the bar passing an NPC that had begun playing music in her stead. The music seemed to match the grim mood of the table.

Etaru gripped the edge of the table angrily, barely containing his frustration. His eyes started watering up as he empathized with their collective pain by remembering his own pain when he lost his friend Troy. "I'm sorry. I let my guard down. I thought for sure that nothing was going to happen. If I hadn't... I might have been able to save-"

A strong punch knocked him into the wall. Etaru turned to see Ken'ichi with a stern look on his face. "Don't you go there. Don't you dare blame yourself. If you hadn't been there, we all would have eaten dirt. The only one to blame is Eulec, got it?"

Etaru grimly nodded. He fully understood all too well but understanding didn't dull the pain.

Shashitane sat back down with a tray of small glasses filled with that same virtual whiskey. Everyone sat in silence as she grimmly passed them out. She remained standing, her head bowed with her hair covering her face. "To Kryoll." She said, her voice shaking as she lifted her glass above her head.

Everyone stood and raised their glass. "To Kryoll." They all silently threw back their drinks and then sat down. Even though Etaru never met Kryoll, he empathized with their pain and struggled against his own guilt over the matter. When he pushed that guilt back, memories of Troy replaced it. They sat in silence for a long while listening to the NPC bard and staring out the window or at the table.

Eventually Ken'ichi turned to Etaru and broke the long silence. "Hey, listen. We talked for quite a bit yesterday while you were out. The loss of Eulec and Kryoll have pretty much destroyed our guild. None of us could bear to step foot in our old guild house so we sold it and they were the leaders of our guild. We don't want to drift apart, but without them we don't even know where to start looking for work or how to go about it. I'm embarrassed to say it, but we all became near completely dependant on their leadership."

They all nodded in agreement staring at the table a little ashamed that they had been duped by an LC member, lost a dear friend, and in the process misplaced their independence.

"Anyway, point is, we figured that a mapper's best jobs need a party. If you'd be okay with it, we'd like to invite you to our guild and buy a new base here. We know that some of your work is shady and while that doesn't sit perfectly well with us, you seem like a good enough guy that I, at least, don't think any of us will regret working with you. If you want, it can only be temporary for us to get back on our feet."

Etaru already knew the answer he was going to give but he tried to fight it off. He wanted desperately to say no, but the short time he had spent with them was the most peaceful time he had had in the game since Troy had died. There was a part of him that feared his mind would fail him again and punish them with his carelessness like it had Troy but there was a part of him that believed that Troy was the only thing that had kept him from giving into his despair. Maybe he could find the same support here? Supporting friends were more powerful than any pharmaceutical he had ever been given.

Ken'ichi must have misread Etaru's expression as he immediately scrambled and tried to sell his idea. "You'd make more money with a party because you can tackle the harder jobs faster than you could do the easier ones solo. And you don't have to even join the guild if you don't want to, we're just asking to party up, really. And-"

Etaru put his hand up to stop him. He had his head down and could only see Ken'ichi in his peripheral vision. He had backed into a defensive posture expecting Etaru to say no.

"I think..." Etaru chewed on the words, forcing them to come out cleanly. Even now, he fought his impulse to lie and push them all away. It took all his energy to say, "I think... I'd like that. I'd like that a lot."

As if the weight of the decision fell off his shoulders, Etaru crumpled into the cushion behind him, grabbed his mug, and took a long swig. The melancholy mood of the table seemed to lift and everyone's face lifted. Etaru smiled and thought to himself "Maybe I'll have the opportunity to make some more of those good memories I wished I had more of."


	6. Sunset -- Chapter 5

The Silvered Amulet guild spend most of the day in that pub, talking and getting to know each other. The break in routine was a welcome relief for Etaru. He thought back and couldn't remember a time when he had actually taken a break from work for anything but to prepare for work later.

"Etaru," Ken'ichi began, "I know you never met Kryoll, but we were going to head down to the first floor tomorrow to the Monument of Life and have a small memorial for him. I think we'd all like it if you came."

Etaru looked around the table. At the time, the only person not at the table was Shashitane who had replaced the NPC bard again and attracted a sizable audience. Everyone gave him a nod when he looked at them. "Yeah, I can do that." He looked down and swallowed hard. He hadn't been down to the Monument of Life for a while now.

"Great!" Ken'ichi slapped him on the back. "Alright, before it gets too late, I'm gonna go pick out a guild house. I've already narrowed it down quite a bit, so I should have it picked out before dark. I'll message you guys."

"Be sure you do not tarnish it with your less than mediocre decorating!" Tarou laughed while speaking in his usual over-formal tone.

"Bah! Fine! I'll let you do the tedious work of setting up the furniture." Ken'ichi slipped out of the pub before Tarou had a chance to recover from his laughing bout and retort.

Flig turned to Etaru, "Hey, do you know a good blacksmith in the area? Some of my gear needs repairing and I'd like to browse for a plate helmet."

"Yeah. That's actually one of the few things in this city that I know well. I need to order a new bracer anyway-he doesn't do cloth work though. I'm hoping he'll know someone who can repair the rest of my gear."

"Ken'ichi is an excellent tailor. His embroidered Silvered Amulet shirt is testament to his skill. For casual-wear, it has the highest requirements in the tailoring skill. I am certain he would be elated to perform maintenance on your myriad of equipment." Tarou spoke in a slow lyrical tone with his eyes closed as though he were singing along with the music.

"Oh that's right. Thanks for reminding me." Etaru stood up and stretched. "Did you want to come, Tarou?"

"Oh, no, good sir. Shashitane has not finished playing and I have a duty to fulfil."

"'A duty'..." Etaru repeated.

Flig rolled his eyes, "He thinks he has been given some divine duty to wait in pubs for ladies. A common ladies man if you ask me."

"How unnecessarily cruel of you, my friend. I have not ever said it was a divine task." He smirked. "It might as well be one though."

Flig scoffed and started walking towards the door after fastening his odachi to his back.

"What about Shashitane?" Etaru asked

Flig burst into laughter as he left the pub.

"But she is to me as family may be to you. It wouldn't be right now would it? Besides, I tried upon our first meeting. My advances went... poorly." Tarou's formal and melodic tone broke up at the end.

"There's a story there, and you're gonna tell me later."

"I shall not, sir, but you are welcome to attempt to coerce it out of me." Tarou sat back in the booth and set his feet up on the table and gave a half-hearted salute to Etaru as he closed his eyes once again.

Etaru glanced over at Shashitane who still had an entire audience entranced with her music. The idea that she shared traits with a Siren crossed his mind and made him laugh. Etaru waved to bid her farewell, but she was completely oblivious and entrenched in her performance so Etaru ducked out of the pub.

* * *

><p>"The way he pretends to be chivalrous and then turns around and acts like a complete pig disgusts me." Flig's walk had turned into a walk of irritation. Etaru kept silent as Flig continued to spit out insults to Tarou's character. Finally, Flig seemed to get all his pent up frustration out of his system and became silent.<p>

"Bothers you that much, huh?"

Flig sighed. "Not as much as I make it out to be. He can be a nice guy and he's really helpful, but his arrogant, plastic attitude can become insufferable."

"Yeah, I can see that happening. I can't really throw stones around though: I've got my own problems though I hope you guys never have to see them."

"You? HA! You've got to be the most cheerful person I know. You practically exploded in the pub with excitement over the past three hours."

"It's just that time of the season," Etaru muttered silently. He tried to bury the topic, "So, Kryoll and Shashitane were married?"

"Uh... I guess technically, yeah. I couldn't say if they were romantically involved-not my business-and if they were, they didn't flaunt it in everyone's faces like Tarou would. As far as I know, they were just really close real life friends. I mean she's plenty friendly, but..." Flig shifted uncomfortably. He obviously didn't like talking about people behind their backs. This time he shifted the conversation, "I don't know much about Mapping as a profession. I know that players sell their map data, but how does it work as an actual job?"

Etaru let the topic rest. He could feel anxiety building up in his gut over the potential drama that could come from being in a party. The thought of infighting and conflict wearied him and he didn't want to push Flig for the information. "Well... I guess there are two main angles you could see it from." Etaru's pace slowed as he considered how to word the differences. "Pretty much every mapper will swarm a new tower as soon as the field boss is defeated, but aside from that, the differences are that there are mappers who exclusively collect map data to sell it. If the tower hasn't been made accessible yet, they map the main floor looking for quests or rare monster spawns."

"So, the literal interpretation?"

"Yeah. Then you've got mappers like me. I work directly for an information dealer. In my spare time, I collect map data like traditional mappers and I always hit a new tower when I can, but I also take odd jobs that fit my skills. Mappers come in a lot of different forms. Some are combat oriented and they fight their way through towers and the floor to do their mapping. It's not very efficient though because if they aren't in a party, the time they take in combat detracts a lot of time they could spend scouring the map. It's also quite a bit more tiring. So, you'll see combat mappers, but they are almost never alone. The most efficient mappers are generally people with builds like mine. Being able to sneak past enemies makes mapping much, much faster. The trade-off is that it's very dangerous. These days as the towers get harder and harder, it's really rare to find solo mappers. If you get detected by a monster in the middle of the tower, it's near impossible to escape. The majority of mapping is done by parties now."

"I see. Aside from grinding and rare monster drops, mapping pays the best though right?"

"Well... no. Trade professions like smithing and tailoring produce a far more consistent income which makes them more profitable and grinding just depends on the party. Mapping by itself is as much luck as rare monster drops. With luck, then sure. We could say it's more profitable, but the time between good sells outweighs that. That's why mappers like me end up working for an information broker."

Flig scowled each time 'information broker' was said. "I take it you aren't fond of information brokers."

"It's a dirty, cowardly trade. It's just legitimized thieving."

Etaru laughed which seemed to irritate Flig more. "I'm sorry. You're mostly right. I can get away with avoiding most of the really sketchy jobs because I'm a decently high level. I'm not quite on par with a member of the assault team, but I'm close enough that the majority of Aincrad is open to me. I don't like a lot of aspects of it, but I think the stable system it has set up has fended off a lot of organized crime. I've helped bust a few small PKing guilds-nothing that would make the news. So, for its faults, I can still be proud of the work I do at the end of the day. You are right though. Natalie is actually quite tame compared to a few of the information brokers I've worked with. Some of them have a mean streak that, quite frankly, is terrifying."

"Yeah. I suppose good things can come from dark places. Still. It makes me uncomfortable working with her. I don't trust her."

"Then you have good instincts. Working in the information trade, you learn quickly to watch your employers actions. Clever ones are expected to employ two agents. One to do a job, and the second to silence the first. It's an unfair stereotype, but sadly more accurate than any agent would like to admit."

"Making deals with red guilds... disgusting. Nothing justifies that. All that makes me see are people who are consumed by greed and lust and have lost sight of the costs for their own upliftment."

Etaru was enjoying his conversation with Flig. Flig put up an illusion of simplicity in groups, but he had well thought opinions. Even though the traditionalist nature of his opinions bothered Etaru slightly, he appreciated that Flig had obviously put effort into forming and justifying those opinions.

"Well, I'll do my best to show you the positive side of the profession. It's like music in that while it's all underneath the umbrella of information trading, the different subsections are very different-like genres in music."

Flig scoffed at the suggestion but said nothing. He may have sounded agitated, but he appeared to be enjoying the conversation as much as Etaru.

"Here. This is Philo's shop. This is one of two shops I frequent here."

Etaru heard a soft footstep. It wasn't like hearing a person walking, but was like the amplified sound of a twig snapping and breaking a complete silence. Someone was watching. Etaru activated his detection skill and looked around hoping to flush out the eavesdropper. Sure enough, he soon heard the pattering of someone retreating away as fast as they could. Etaru took chase. There was no danger inside the city so there was no harm in attempting to catch the spy even without his equipment. Besides, his unarmed skill was high enough that he could probably fend for himself anyway.

Etaru sprinted around corners following a glowing set of footprints on the ground.

"The hell?"

The footprints abruptly ended. The tracks showed no sign of increased pressure to indicate a jump or change in direction. They must have used a teleport crystal. Etaru swore at himself for losing the target despite knowing that it was unlikely he would have been able to catch them anyway. Flig could be heard clanging up behind him still a full block away. Etaru sprinted back to where Flig was.

"What was that?"

Etaru scratched the back of his neck. He knew that telling Flig this would only increase his suspicion of the job further, but he didn't have any good excuse so he just told the truth and twisted it a little. "Just a common alley rat spy. Players who don't have parties and aren't strong enough to quest alone sometimes work as eavesdroppers so that they can get basic stuff like food and shelter."

"Taking advantage of the helpless." Flig's face tightened.

"They get to eat at night." Etaru smiled. He knew he was intentionally acting the part of the contrarian. Flig turned, irritated over the directness of the criticism, and realized that Etaru was just trying to get a rise out of him.

"Ha. Alright, fine. We can leave the topic alone." Flig laughed and headed back to Philo's.

* * *

><p>The door chime rang as Etaru and Flig entered Philo's Smithy Shop and Philo sped around the corner as if getting a customer was the most exciting event in the world.<p>

"Red! Hey, man! Glad to see you're alive. You said it'd be a few days, but I didn't quite believe you. You're a regular!"

Flig leaned over to Etaru and whispered, "Red?"

Etaru ignored the question and responded to Philo, "Yeah, the job took longer than I expected."

"Hey!" Philo leaned in and Etaru could tell he was staring right above his head. "You joined a guild!? I never thought I'd see the day."

"Why not?" Flig cut in. Blunt as always.

"Uh..." Etaru made a sound as fast as he could to make sure that he spoke next. "Philo, this is Flig, a member of the Silvered Amulet. Flig, this is Philo, the best smith on the floor and probably the five adjacent floors."

Philo bowed twice excitedly. "Any friend of Red's a friend of mine!"

"You mean their money is a friend of yours," Etaru retorted.

Philo let out a hearty laugh and then addressed Flig, "Oh, I've been working with Etaru for a year now and he's never even mentioned another person let alone a guild. I mean, I think it's been months since I've even seen him out of his armor. It just surprised me is all. Anyway, where are my manners! What can the great Philo do for you today?!"

Flig was obviously confused by Philo's excited manner so Etaru went ahead and spoke first. "I need some maintenance done on my boots and I need a new bracer." Etaru walked up while scrolling through his inventory. He converted his gear to game items and set them on the counter.

"You let a piece of equipment break? Jeez, what kind of a fight were you in... Holy... Your equipment is seriously messed up, man! You want me to just make you new equipment? I got a fresh set of high level mats, so I could probably make you some gear that is twice as good as these. Plus, it'll take less time. I have a lot of orders so the earliest I could have the new gear done is by tomorrow afternoon and if you really wanted the repairs, I could have those done by tomorrow evening."

"Alright... I suppose it's been a while since I upgraded my equipment." Etaru thought to himself that his money ought to go somewhere useful. "How much?"

Philo tapped on the counter while looking at the ceiling mouthing something silently. "Um... mats... bracers... boots... labor. Two-hundred twenty thousand should cover it."

Etaru gave Philo a suspicious look, "You wouldn't happen to be charging me the rush order fee would you, because I don't recall asking for a rush order."

"Oh, right!" Philo's fingers started counting again. "One-hundred and ninety thousand?"

Etaru sighed and opened up a trade window and transferred the Kol.

"Right! I'll have those ready by... let's say 1400 tomorrow."

Flig stepped forward and pointed at a helmet that was hung on the wall, "how much for that helmet there."

Philo looked behind him, and then turned with a big smile on his face, "I'm not gonna let a friend of Red's walk out with trash like that!" He scurried into the back room and produced another helmet. "It looks more decorated, but it's actually not. Decorations usually degrade the armor or weapon and I wouldn't add that unless specifically asked to by the customer-or for a display piece... but that's beside the point!"

Philo manipulated the item menu and flipped it around to Flig. While Flig inspected the stats on the helmet, Philo pulled the helmet off the wall and set it down next to the first one and opened its item menu as well.

"As you can clearly see, this helmet is far superior to the decorated vendor trash I leave hanging on the wall!"

Seemingly oblivious to Philo's sales pitch, Flig asked, "Then why do you hang it on the wall?"

Philo stopped unsure of what to say but he quickly recovered and deflected the question, "Listen, if you *really* want the vendor trash helmet, I suppose I won't stop you, but don't you want one of Philo's premium helmets?"

Etaru looked over Flig's shoulder and inspected the stats himself. It was true: the helmet Philo had brought out of the back room was far superior, but the question remained as to how much he would charge for it.

Flig narrowed his eyes, "How much are you selling it for?"

"Well let's see... I am *really* proud of this piece and I've had a lot of interested buyers-"

"For the helmet you hide in the backroom?" Flig shot back

"Ok, well a few interested buyers. I suppose I could part with it for a hundred-thousand Kol."

Etaru was about to step in to keep Philo from ripping Flig off, but Flig pushed right back against Philo. "Seventy-thousand."

"Ninety."

"Eighty."

"Eighty-five."

"Done!"

Etaru stood with his mouth open. He'd never actually seen anyone bargain with Philo before.

"Anything else I can do for you?" Philo continued

"How much for a repair job on my armor?"

Philo leaned in and inspected Flig's armor. "Pshh. It's barely even regular maintenance. Five hundred Kol and I'll have it done before sundown."

Flig opened a trade window and transferred the money. "You got a changing room?"

Philo motioned to the side room. After Flig closed the door, Etaru expected to hear Philo complain about being ripped off, but instead, "Red, I don't know where you get your friends. I like him. Make more friends."

Flig came back dressed in baggy civilian clothes. He transferred his armor over to Philo and then bowed.

Philo bowed twice excitedly again. "Thank you for your business! You're always welcome here." Without waiting for a response, he gathered everything up and scurried back into his shop's backroom.

As they walked back to the pub, Etaru looked at Flig. "Hey, I've never seen anyone haggle down Philo before. How-"

"Did you forget? We have Ken'ichi in our party!" He began laughing. "Spend a month with him, and you'll never let another merchant pull a fast one on you ever again."

* * *

><p>Flig and Etaru made it back to the pub and found Tarou sleeping in the booth. Shashitane was no where to be found and an NPC bard had taken her place. Flig walked up to Tarou and tapped him on the shoulder.<p>

"Huurrmm?..." Tarou stirred but didn't wake up.

"Tarou." Flig said but received no response. He sighed and then gave him a firm push. Tarou woke up and out of surprise lurched sideways falling onto the cushion of the booth seat.

"It is not polite or acceptable to rouse a man from his afternoon nap in such a violent or degrading fashion!" Tarou glared at Flig, barely visible to Etaru as he lay flat on the seat.

"Right, sorry. I'll remember that next time. Where's Shashitane?"

"The lady informed me that she had need to take leave to 'run some errands' in her own exact words." Tarou turned to Etaru. "How do you live in such a city? An entire day, and not a single lady has past underneath the mantle of that door!"

"An entire year of living in this city, and aside from today, I've only passed through it once myself. Don't ask me." Etaru caught himself. He was starting to get tired from the intense exposure of being around people all day and he was getting irritated and short with people. It was only 1700 so a nap might not be the worst of ideas before everyone met back up. "Well, I'm gonna go take care of some things at my place. Message me if something comes up, alright?"

"We shall message you should-"

"Yeah, no problem." Flig interrupted Tarou, clearly disinterested in listening to him wax eloquent.

Etaru turned to leave and laughed to himself. "Yeah, I think I'll get along just fine with these guys." He waved a hand over his shoulder as he slipped out of the pub.

* * *

><p>Etaru had meant to take a nap, but the hour he set aside to sleep ended up being a restless nap. His thoughts were filled with the mysteries of the past week.<p>

KoB's association with information brokers for new hires.

LC's involvement in the assassination of a small-time guild. No. LC's direct intervention and creation of a small time guild for the purpose of destroying it.

Natalie's meeting at KoB headquarters.

The exorbitant fee for rescuing the Silvered Amulet players.

It wasn't adding up and the missing pieces were irritating Etaru. Suddenly it occurred to him, could Troy's death be connected?

No, no, no. That couldn't be right. That was practically a year ago. To keep such a vicious conspiracy secret for so long was unthinkable. Further, the targets were too different. Some were players on the verge of joining an assault team while some were like the Silvered Amulet players, skilled but incomparable to the assault team.

"I hate being kept in the dark." As he said it though, he knew that this was the name of the game since he started working for an information broker. Now, though, he suddenly cared.

The realization came as a shock to him. He'd spent the past year working every day and blindly taking the jobs he was given. Sure, he'd been selective about which jobs he took, but as he thought back through them, phantom webs began to connect them all.

He sat up and shook his head. This line of thought was dangerous. Conspiracy theory led to a life of paranoia. "I have enough rampant emotions to fog up my judgment without an eternal panic attack barely held at bay." Etaru stood up and put on his street clothes again; he had decided to take a walk to clear his head. Maybe floor forty-eight. That floor had a nice peaceful feel to it and it wasn't usually too busy. Maybe a walk there would clear his head.

Etaru walked over to the door and opened it to find a fist hovering in front of his face. He jumped back in surprise to see Shashitane standing in the doorway, about to knock, equally surprised.

Etaru looked around and embarrassed by the mess quickly slid into the hallway and closed the door to his apartment. He scratched at his neck to ease his own tension before bowing. "Good evening."

Shashitane looked at him with a confused look and then quickly bowed and responded in kind. "Good evening, Etaru."

Etaru began walking towards the exit, "what brings you all the way here?"

"I have something for you."

Etaru stopped and turned. "Oh?"

Shashitane walked towards him while scrolling through her inventory and then a trade window popped up in front of Etaru.

Etaru's mouth dropped open. "These are all high level cloth equipment! But..."

She held a hand up to stop Etaru. "Before you even mention cost, I'll remind you again that you saved our lives. We don't care that you were paid to do it. This is us trying to show that we value our lives and your action to defend them regardless of your reasons. It took all day yesterday and most of today to get all the mats for it, but we had Ken'ichi make the best cloth armor he could possibly make."

Etaru suddenly felt a lump in his throat from guilt, "You didn't take this out of the money your were going to use to replace your guild house did you?!"

"*Our* guild house? And no. We went and ground for most of the mats yesterday."

The panic drained away and Etaru felt warm. Warm? In any case he found himself tearing up. There wasn't even any real reason. It was just another group of people returning a favor right? Without thinking and in an action that took himself off-guard, he bowed. "Thank you." He felt like there were more words that were supposed to come out and he waited, but nothing happened. He stood back up and accepted the trade. He looked to see Shashitane less than a meter away holding something in both hands wrapped in cloth.

She handed the package to him and he unwrapped it to find his katars inside.

"After the battle, I picked them up. They were near breaking so I took them to a smith shop I knew and they fixed them right up."

Etaru wasn't sure what he was feeling. He thought back as far as he could. He finally settled on what he thought the feeling was: family. He breathed a sigh of contentment and slid his hands into his katars and placed them into the sheaths that appeared on his thighs.

Suddenly he was enveloped in a warm embrace. It startled him-he hadn't been hugged in... he couldn't even remember from the game or his life before the last time he had more than shook someone's hand. What an odd mixture of discomfort and contentment.

His eyes opened wide with the realization that he was still standing with his arms at his side. He awkwardly returned the hug, mechanically patting her on the back. He could feel his face flushing over the situation, most young adults his age would have no problem with a situation like this and here he was fearlessly charging into certain death, but completely clueless what to do when hugged.

"Welcome to the Silvered Amulet." She stepped back and took one look at his face and then laughed.

Etaru rubbed his forehead with his hand and forced words out of his mouth to break the tension. "I was about to take a walk on floor forty-eight. Would you like to..." He paused irritated with himself for having just invited someone else to come on what was supposed to help him get away from people for a bit to clear his head.

Shashitane smiled and replied, "That sounds nice."

Flig wasn't kidding when he said that she was friendly. Etaru sighed and decided he'd just have to make it till the night to get his energy back.

He must have let his thoughts bleed through onto his face. "Oh come on, I can't be that bad." She laughed. "It'll be fine. I need to get away too."

Etaru unintentionally gave her a suspicious look before his eyes fell on her ring. For some reason, that sight flooded him with relief. "Alright. Let's go."

* * *

><p>Shashitane and Etaru wandered around floor forty-eight for a bit before deciding on a grassy hill just at the west edge of the city. Neither of them had their armor so they agreed it was best to stay inside the city limits. They sat down near a gurgling water canal as the sun began to go down.<p>

After a half hour of silence, Shashitane lay back onto the grass. "If you don't mind me asking, what was your friend Troy like?"

The question was completely unexpected and left Etaru speechless. Not only was he not used to being asked the question-only a handful of people knew about it-but he was also bewildered at his lack of hesitancy to talk about it. As if the words had formed on their own and walked out of his mouth, he started speaking. "Troy was probably my only friend in real life." Etaru laid back on the grass. The weight of the words and the memories pinned him to the ground. "I had some... problems... growing up and even when my family stopped helping, Troy was always there. It was like he knew what I was thinking or feeling as I felt it or before I felt it. I don't know what having a brother is like, but I feel that the word is more appropriate. We were like brothers."

"I think... I think I understand." Shashitane was playing with the ring on her finger, slowly spinning it. "Kryoll and I were the same way-or similar anyway. He was an orphan, but as kids he would give up everything to make sure his friends were alright. He was always really popular too because of his charismatic attitude."

Etaru laughed, "Yeah that sounds just like Troy too."

They sat in silence for a while. The sun had half fallen out of view. Etaru began to stand to his feet, "We should be headed back. I'm sure Ken'ichi is about done picking out the guild house."

As he stood up, Shashitane grabbed his hand. For a moment nothing happened and even the sound of the creek seemed to stop. "The guild needs you. You have something that the guild needs." She paused, her mouth hanging open, unsure what to say. "I don't know how I know, but I'm certain of it. You have something that died in us when Kryoll fell. When you were passed out in your apartment, everyone in the guild got at each others' throats and it felt like the life had drained out of all of us but when you sat with us today, it was like we were a family again. Imperfect, but... together."

Etaru looked down to see tears rolling down Shashitane's face. "Thank you." She whispered. "Thank you for staying-for saving my family."

Etaru felt frozen for a moment, unsure of how to process the information he had just been given. He felt stuck in the kneeling position, one hand occupied by Shashitane's tight grasp. Finally, he stood up and picked up Shashitane and wrapped her in a hug. It happened so organically that he surprised himself. She cried into his shoulder for a minute or two before pulling away and wiping her face with her sleeve. She led the way back to town and Etaru quickly caught up and they made their way back in a peaceful silence.

Before they even reached the teleport gate, they received a message from Ken'ichi that everything was ready and directions to the new guild house. They quickly made their way back and found when they had arrived that everyone was already there. It felt like the world stood still as he saw Ken'ichi and Tarou exchanging verbal jabs, Flig was opening a bottle of champagne, and Shashitane just stood grasping at the seams of her dress with a huge teary smile surveying the scene.

"I don't think I'll ever forget this moment."


End file.
